Tech News

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is up to 16 times more massive than thought

March 22, 2018

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), a massive area of floating plastic debris that is more than twice the size of Texas, contains about 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. This is between 4 and 16 times the mass of plastic that scientists previously estimated. 

What’s worse is that the amount of plastic within this area is growing “exponentially,” according to a comprehensive three-year-long study using 30 vessels and a high-tech reconnaissance aircraft. 

The study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, provides a detailed analysis of the size and types of plastic caught up in the Garbage Patch, which occupies about 1.6 million square kilometers, or 617,763 square miles, between Hawaii and California.  Read more…

More about Science, Oceans, Pollution, Plastic Pollution, and Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Source: Mashable | The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is up to 16 times more massive than thought

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.